spf-discuss
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Re: implementation question

2004-01-14 07:54:51


On 14 Jan 2004 Wechsler <spf-discuss(_at_)v2(_dot_)listbox(_dot_)com> wrote:

Meng Weng Wong wrote:

I'm guessing SpamAssassin will distinguish between

 - fail
 - unknown (record exists)
 - unknown (record does not exist)

and score the first very negatively and the second slightly negatively.

NO! No, no, and indeed NO!
If I've not clarified myself enough there, NO! This is a very very bad idea.

It is ESSENTIAL that a ?all record fares no worse than no record in spam 
checking, otherwise publishing SPF records INCREASES the likelihood that 
some of a domain's outgoing mail will be treated as spam, and people 
will refuse to implement it.

I now have about a dozen friends and colleagues covering a far larger 
number of domains who are prepared to implement SPF. This lies entirely 
on my assertions that publishing SPF records will not harm the 
"reputation" of any ?all mails.

If this is not the case, they (and, I would expect, many more) will 
REFUSE to publish records.

Please EXCUSE the capitalisation, but I cannot make the above point 
firmly enough. And I may be channeling ziggy...

You have hit the nail on the head.  It is not the requirements of the RFC 
that is bothering people, it's how people will be using the responses.  
If it can be ensured that the ?all is not going to be rejected then those 
large entities with thousands of SMTP servers all over the world will not 
be all that adverse to implement.  That said, as soon as the see people 
in NANAE talking about rejecting on the ?all then you'll be back to 
square one.

Since there are already people in this forum saying that the ?all 
response should be treated differently than no response then I'm not all 
that sure this is the case.  I personally feel the RFC should state that 
a ?all response MUST be treated no differently than no response.
 

      Wechsler


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Thomas R. Stephenson, CPL          Phone: (408) 742-3308
Lockheed Martin Technical Operations  
MILSTAR Logistics Engineering O/M5-41  B/158
P.O. Box 61687 Sunnyvale, CA 94088-1687   

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Thought for the day:
Technology:  Once you can afford it, it's out of date.



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